| People | Date | Comment |
| Ionian Rising | 500-494 | The Greek poleis of Ionia
rose in revolt against the Persian Empire. Lead by Miletus, they were supported by Athens and Eretria. First successful, the cities were besieged and retaken by a superior Persian force. |
| Persian Wars | 490-479 | King Dareius of Persia
regarded the Athenian aid given to the Ionian rebels as an interference in Persian affairs and set out with an expedition to punish it. Eretria was burnt to the ground; the Persian expedition landed near Marathon, where a battle ensued. The Persians reembarked in order to sail around Cape Sunion and surprise an undefended Athens; Athenian runner Pheidippides beat them in a race. Athens was saved for the moment (490). Darius died, and by 480 Xerxes lead a second expedition into Greece. At the Thermopylae they were held up, so that the Athenians could evacuate their city, which was burnt to the ground. At Salamis (480) the Persian fleet was defeated, at Plataea (479) the Persian army, while a Greek victory at Mycale near Miletus (479) took the war across the Aegaean back into Ionia. The Greek cities on the eastern shore of the Aegaean were liberated and joined the Delian League, under Athenian Leadership. |
| Battle of Marathon | 490 | Climax of the first Persian
invasion into Greece. After having destroyed Eretria, the Persians disembarked at Marathon. Soon after they were engaged in battle by Athenian forces under Miltiades. With the Athenians holding the higher ground and having the better of the fight, the Persians broke off the battle, reembarked and sailed south in order to circumnavigate Cape Sunion and arrive at an undefended Athens - for the Athenian army could not march across Attica that fast. However, the Athenian runner Pheidippides was faster than the Persian fleet; those Athenians who had stayed home prepared for defense, and the Persians, seeing their plan failed, did not even attempt an attack. |
| Defense of Thermopylae |
480 | The Thermopylae were a very narrow passage, between a steep rock on one side and a
steep cliff on the other, on the main road into Greece proper. A line of two to three men wide could block it; the defenders had the advantage of high ground and could see the enemy approaching. During the second Persian invasion of 480, the allied Greek forces blocked the Thermopylae. When a traitor lead a platoon of elite Persian soldiers around the Greek positions over a mountain goat path, it became obvious that the Greek position could not be held. Leonidas, the Spartan commander sent the allies home, chosing for himself and his Spartans to stay and hold the ground; he was joined by the Thespians. The defenders held on for 3 more days, but sandwiched between two Persian units, perished to the last man. Their unselfish action provided the Athenians with the time to evacuate their city and the Peloponnesians to establish a defensive position on the isthm. |
| Battle of Salamis | 480 | Themistocles had most of the
Athenian population evacuated to the island of Salamis, from where they could see the city and Acropolis burnt to the ground by the Persians. The Persian fleet, mainly Phoenician and Ionian Greek ships and crews, approached the allied Greek fleet. In the shallow waters north of Salamis, the smaller Athenian and Aeginetan triremes proved superior to the larger ships of their foes, outmanoeuvring them. From the Acropolis, Xerxes could observe his ships being rammed and sunk. He decided to return to Persia, leaving Mardonios, with a part of the Persian army, behind. |
| Battle of Plataea | 479 | In 479 the Persian and Greek
land forces faced each other near Plataea, on the banks of the river Asopus. For three days both sides were reluctant to open the battle; then, Persian riders had managed to get around the Greek positions amnd poisoned the well the Greeks depended on. Their position now untenable, the Greek commander, the Spartan king Pausanias, ordered retreat. The Persians mistook the Greek retreat for flight and attacked; the Greeks stood their ground and cut down the enemy as he approached. The Greeks took the Persian camp; the battle was the last a Persian army fought in Europe. |
| Battle of Mycale | 479 | Fought in 479 at Cape Mycale
near Miletus. A Greek force was disembarked and defeated a Persian force although the latter occupied the higher ground. The Greek victory shifted the war to the eastern coast of the Aegaean and resulted in the liberation of the Ionian Greeks from Persian rule. |
| Peloponnesian War | 431-404 | Since 477, Sparta and
Athens had faced each other as the two powers of Classical Greece. The Athenians were regarded hegemon on the seas, the Spartans on land. For almost 5 decades they refrained from interfering in each other's affairs. In the 430es this policy was given up and the Peloponnesian War erupted. The Athenian fleet controlled the seas, the Spartan army the land. The Athenians had built long walls securing the road from (walled) Athens to the harbour of Piraeus; anything outside those walls was controlled by the Spartans. There were few major battles, the war being fought more as a war of exhaustion. In 415-413 the Athenians undertook a disastrous expedition against Syracuse (on Sicily), a Spartan ally. In 404 the Athenians had to surrender; the Athenian Maritime League was dissolved. Sparta was sole hegemon of Greece. |
| Persian Civil War | 401-400 | Persian prince Cyrus raised
an army to unthrone his brother Artaxerxes; the key troops was a unit of 10,000 Greek mercenaries. The rebel force marched into Babylonia and was victorious in battle, when Cyrus died of disease. The Greeks, commanded by Xenophon, fought their way back through hundred of kilometres of enemy territory. |
| Spartan Expedition against Persia |
399-394 | As sole Greek hegemon, Sparta continued the war Athens had lead against the Persian Empire. Spartan king Agesilaus sacked Sardis and remained undefeated on his campaign into Asia, when Athens and Thebes, bribed by Persian gold, declared war on Sparta and he was recalled. |
| Corinthian War | 395-387 | War declared by Athens and
Thebes on Sparta. The former had been bribed by the Persians in order to get rid of the Spartan menace. The war was indecisive. |
| Battle of Leuctra | 371 | In this battle, the Thebans, lead
by Epaminondas, defeated the Spartans decisively. Spartan hegemony ended, Theban hegemony began. |
| Battle of Chaironeia | 337 | The Macedonians
defeated the allied Athenians and Thebans. Macedonian crown prince Alexander lead the victorious Macedonian cavalry. The battle established Macedonian hegemony. |